[vdr] next features?

> > H.264 will only become interesting (to me) once there are hardware
> > devices that can replay it (aka "Full Featured DVB cards").
> > I am not interested in software players that might not even run
> > on my 450 MHz VDR.
> >
> > Until then, normal MPEG2/DVB-S does just fine for me.
I can understand Klaus has only a limited amount of time available and
therefore can only focus on what he thinks are important for his
system, but the problem with this is that there is more than 1 user of
VDR out there. H264 is a video standard and as such it should have
support within VDR. More and more channels will start using it (not
necessarily HD channels either, H264 increases the bandwidth of the
satellite platform) and there is already plenty of fine content out
there. E.g. the Premiere HD channels, Sky UK HD channels and the
bouquet of HD channels on Thor (Canal Digital). The Polish HD channels
are already improving and there will be HD channels as part of
Digitalb in December. It has now gone behind demonstration loops and
if you check out Kingofsat's website you will see there is now an
abundance of channels from different providers.
If Klaus is too busy or unconcerned to implement this standard in VDR,
why aren't key patches by trustworthy sources such as Reinhard
included? If Klaus does not start taking onboard assistance from key
developers to assist then VDR will always be behind the curve. With
something as important as H264 and DVB-S2 support, this needs to be
included in the developer version as soon as possible (H264 NOW and
DVB-S2 when the multiproto stuff is finished) otherwise it will be a
real problem to patch and update the source and plugins to keep in
line with new developer versions. Klaus may argue that he would like
to keep control of stability of VDR etc, however isn't this why we
have "developer" versions? Personally, I have still be using
vdr-1.4.7, but I also have vdr-1.5.10 setup alongside it for looking
at the dev version and applying patches etc (usually when the wife is
out).
Reinhard has released some much needed patches that AFAIK have still
not been implemented within VDR developer: -
* H264 (this can slot in very easily with negligible impact to MPEG2 users)
* Sync Early
* NTSC recording time
* Radio recording time fix (this has been a problem with VDR for as
long as I have used it)
Essentially, what I believe is that if Klaus is unwilling to implement
changes within VDR due to time constraints he should do what most
other open source projects do and enlist help and set-up a CVS/SVN/HG.
Klaus can then spend a little bit of time reviewing the code and
ensuring it is OK, but I'm sure from people like Reinhard et al this
will not take a lot of time.
I must admit that unless this happens soon then I might be another
long term user and supporter of VDR that moves over to MythTV purely
because it seems to be better supported by developers. I have recently
been playing with xine and a nvidia card (for both VDR and MythTV) and
there is now very little difference between the output of xine and
Technotrend FF card due to the improvements in de-interlacing. This
was one of my first reasons for using VDR - output via a graphics card
looked terrible!
Please implement these changes to VDR to ensure that those who would
like to see HD within VDR can remain with their favourite choice of
open source PVR software.
I hope this helps,
Morfsta